Page 62 of Property of Legend

Now I had to survive long enough to do it again.

Chapter 36

Sophie

Darkness again.Deeper this time.

There’s a split second, right before I come to, when I swear I see something move in the trees, something massive, shadowed, not man and not beast.Red eyes.Long limbs.The shape of nightmares.Then it’s gone.Or maybe I imagined it.Maybe it was the blow to the head.Maybe I’m finally losing it.

Because the next thing I know, I’m waking up on a cot in a place I hoped I'd never see again.

Whitewashed walls.Simple wooden pews.Stained-glass windows glowing like judgment.

Pearly Gates Church.

I bolt upright, instinct screaming.My body’s weak, but I’m not tied anymore.My wrists sting where the zip ties cut deep.My throat’s raw, and there’s a weight pressing down on my chest, fear, confusion.

The Reverend steps into view, tall, clean-shaven, and wrapped in that fake holiness.Two of his men, boys, really, stand behind him with hands folded like they’re waiting on orders.

“Miss Montgomery,” he says with a soft smile.“You’re safe now.”

My laugh is broken and bitter.“Safe?In a place like this?”

“You were in the hands of evil,” he says gently, stepping closer.“We got word.We followed their trail.We saved you.”

I squint.“Saved me?Or moved me to your own cage?”

He looks almost hurt.Almost.“Child, we found you in a trailer, unconscious.Beaten.There was blood.If we’d come a moment later…”

I flinch.My head throbs.Bits of memory stir, shadows, voices, a hand around my ankle, the sharp snap of a branch.And that thing in the woods.

“You didn’t see it,” I whisper.

“See what?”

“I don’t know,” I murmur, clutching my arms tight around my middle.“Something… wrong.”

The Reverend just nods like he’s used to people saying crazy things.“You were traumatized.But the Lord guided us to you.And now, He’s offering truth.”

I eye him.“What truth?”

He sighs.“The Kings.The ones you trusted.They were in on it.”

My stomach turns.

“That’s a damn lie.”

“We intercepted messages,” he says, pulling a folder from one of the boys.Inside are screenshots.Names.A ledger.“Big Daddy, your boyfriend’s national president, has ties to a Mexican cartel.A trafficking ring.The same kind of filth that took you.You think that’s a coincidence?”

My heart stutters.I think of the voices outside the trailer.The words about selling me, about making me sign over Paradise Falls.

“You’re lying,” I say again.But my voice is smaller now.Hesitant.

“I know this is hard,” he says, sitting beside me like some damn counselor.“But they’re wolves, Sophie.Wolves in leather, doing the devil’s work.The Kings protect people like them, for a price.You think Legend didn’t know what was happening?”

I shake my head.“He wouldn’t, he pushed me away to protect me.”

“Or to keep you quiet.”

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